Back-office teams are spending hours each day completing repetitive work – data entry, invoice processing and record updating. Individually, these tasks may seem trivial, but cumulatively, they represent lost productivity, unnecessary errors and rising costs of operation. Admittedly, repetitive work makes it hard for employees to do more than just solve problems and contribute creatively, and as a result the work becomes extremely demotivating and frustrating on a daily basis leading to burnout.
The answer to all of this is backoffice automation powered by Intelligent Automation. By combining Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), enterprises can rapidly transform their back office operations, removing error, increasing efficiencies and scaling their function. Remember, backoffice automation is about more than just forming an easy way of reducing costs, it’s about reimagining how HR, finance, and IT teams do their work.
In this article, we will discuss how RPA with AI can modernize critical functional areas of the organizations, unlock a far superior employee experience and prepare enterprises with the potential for growth. We will also provide a tangible roadmap to assist organizations with taking the first steps towards their Intelligent Automated future.
The Problem with Traditional Backoffice Operations
In a lot of companies, back-office staff still spend a large part of their day doing repetitive manual work. Entering data into a spreadsheet, processing invoices, or updating employee information may not seem like much, but when you add it all up, it can eat up a lot of the work day. These processes are often slow, prone to human error and are costly to manage at scale. And as work starts to increase, so do issues and risks of mistakes that can hold up payments, payroll and compliance.
In addition to the direct costs, there is also a human cost. Employees tend to feel stuck doing the same routine activities over and over again, which leaves them little time to do higher-value work requiring creativity, or just plain problem-solving. This lowers morale and can lead to burnout and turnover.
There is another issue too – scalability. Traditional back-office work relies exclusively on people, and it is difficult for organizations to manage perceptions during a surge in demand, without hiring people. In a competitive world, this will lead to delayed responses and constraining organizational growth. For organizations who want to be agile and efficient, using outdated manual processes is no longer an authorized or scalable approach.
Understanding the Core Technologies like RPA and AI
To appreciate the benefits of backoffice automation, we first need to understand the two underlying technologies that make it possible; Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
RPA can be characterized as your digital assistant who can perform one task based on simply stated instructions, and will not deviate from those instructions. RPA is designed as software robots that can mimic human behavior. Generally, software bots can perform computerized tasks quicker, more accurately and tirelessly than humans can, allowing back office employees to stop spending hours doing mindless repetitive tasks such as data entry, matching invoices to receipts or generating reports.
AI takes this a step-past RPA, as it adds intelligence to the automation process. Whereas RPA can act on a structured input, AI can act on complex and unstructured inputs, processes, procedures and decisions. Equally, AI can analyze documents, interpret language with their models such as machine learning (ML) or natural language processing (NLP). As a result, AI allows an organization to auto-mate processes that traditionally required human judgment; reading contracts, filtering resumes and monitoring IT systems can now be done by a machine.
The actual innovation comes when we combine RPA and AI. Together, they create what is often referred to as ‘intelligent automation.’ In this model, RPA handles the repetitive steps and AI understand data, makes decisions, and learns over time. The outcome is a more intelligent, end-to-end process that can process higher volumes of work with increased accuracy and less supervision.
A recently released report by McKinsey illustrates this change, as 78% of organizations used AI in at least one business function, illustrating how integrated these technologies have become in running enterprises.
Transforming Key Business Functions
The benefits of intelligent backoffice automation become even more evident when considering the effect on essential business functions such as finance, human resources, and IT. Historically, these areas have relied heavily on repetitive tasks, so automation has become the vehicle with which companies can recover both time and efficiency.
Finance & Accounting
Finance teams are plagued by routine processes surrounding invoice management, payment reconciliation, or report generation. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) makes entering invoices and matching them to purchase orders easier, because it can capture the invoice and match against the purchase order automatically, reducing time spent in manual entry/cross matching. Bots can prepare real-time reports on the financial health of an organization, helping leaders receive quicker insights into performance. By eliminating repetitive tasks, businesses can close their books quicker, improve accuracy, and reduce costs.
Human Resources (HR)
HR departments must contend with large volumes of paperwork and extensive, process-heavy workflows. Automation could eliminate many onboarding and off boarding processes by automating the data submission, access requests, and compliance checklists. Payroll is another area where automation could take full advantage of bots, collecting timesheets, reviewing submitted timesheets, and ensuring timely salary processing, without error from payroll staff. Automation options today also assist HR professionals very much in recruitment by scanning and sorting resumes at scale and sometimes scheduling interviews so HR professionals can perform the core task of selecting talent instead of sorting through hundreds of applications.
Information Technology (IT)
In IT, employees sometimes create gigantic backlogs of service requests, many of which are trivial but become time-consuming. RPA could perform many of the repetitive tasks from all departments from simple tasks like password resets, software installation, or routing tickets for support. Bots can monitor system performance, 24-7, offering alerts before small problems become larger issues. From a security perspective, automation provides enhanced performance and ensures consistency in performing vulnerability scans and administering access controls to lower the chances of oversights and improve compliance.
These examples paint a clear picture of how automation is transforming important departments. By offering preliminary assistance in laborious and repetitive processes that are low skill production, automation is releasing skilled workers to focus on solving relevant issues, interpreting data, making recommendations and innovating. While cost savings are expected – further benefits may be an increased employee satisfaction and improved agility to enact required changes.
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Benefits Beyond Cost Reduction
While saving money is often the first benefit of automation, benefits extend much further. Perhaps one of the most valuable benefits is accuracy. Automated processes take each step every time, eliminating human error and delivering cleaner data. This is invaluable in areas such as payroll, compliance, and financial reporting where mistakes, no matter how small, can lead to large costs.
Automation also helps people like their work more. By relieving them of the burden of repetitive processes, they can focus on projects that require meaningful judgment, creativity, or problem solving. This will improve morale and lower burnout.
Scalability is another key benefit of automation. Automated systems can handle more work without incrementally increasing headcount, which means enterprise can quickly grow without the overhead. Meanwhile, the same consistent processes have the added benefit of improving compliance. It is not surprising that, as indicated by EY, 97% of senior leaders that are investing in AI are seeing a positive ROI.
A Roadmap for Enterprises
For many companies, the biggest challenge regarding automation is figuring out where to start. The best method to start is small. Pick a single high-impact repetitive, rules-based, and time-consuming process to begin with. If you can use it as a proof of concept, that allows the business to experience some quick wins and help build confidence across teams.
After you have a pilot in place, the next step to create a cross-functional automation team. By bringing together all stakeholders; IT, business operations, and leadership, you ensure you have both technical buy-in and strategic alignment. Clearly defining the right tools, that are user friendly, plus, have the ability to scale, is an important undertaking, as we want to get automation as wide and levelled out, across as many departments as possible.
This will all lead up to measuring success. To successfully measure ROI and advocate for future investments, it is necessary to set initial achievable or identifiable KPIs, such as reductions in costs, time, and errors. Analogously, Deloitte data indicates that about 25% of enterprises employing generative AI will try something in 2025, which is anticipated to double by 2027. Thus, the need for an early start in order to achieve the flywheel effect.
Additionally, creating a culture of automation will allow teams to embrace change and discover opportunities. When teams look at automation as a partner vs. a competitor, enterprises can scale quickly and unlock maximum value.
Concluding Thoughts
All kinds of back-office work have been freed from manual work, mistakes, and inefficiencies, thanks to backoffice automation. The combined pairing of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing how companies perform daily work, such as finance and human resources, to IT. Together they are creating not only significant efficiencies that do save you money, but increased speed, accuracy, and compliance as well.
Also, automation helps reduce the gap between all employees. With employees no longer burdened with mundane tasks, they can spend their time on the strategic and creative work that helps business grow. This shift improved not just the efficiency, but the satisfaction and retention of employees as well.
In the future, automation will be driven by competitive advantage. For companies that are currently implementing intelligent automation, they will be in the best position for scale, innovation, and to keep pace in a rapidly evolving business environment. There is no time to waste, get started now on your automation journey, and enjoy an intelligent back office.